Microsoft Will Reportedly Offer A Single Store For Windows And Windows Phone Apps

Rumor has it that Microsoft is currently planning to develop one single store that will contain apps for both Windows and Windows Phone platforms. That way, the company won’t have to run the separate Windows Store and Windows Phone Store. According to The Verge, this move has been confirmed today by head of the operating systems group at Microsoft, Terry Myerson. The internal company meeting was reportedly attended by “thousands” of Redmond’s employees. Myerson is said to have committed that the single store will go live with the “next releases” of both platforms, believed to be Windows Phone 8.1 and a special update for Windows 8.1. Both releases are expected in Spring, 2014.

The report says that Myerson didn’t reveal at the meeting how the single “Windows Store” is going to work on two different platforms, and if it will be possible for Windows Phone apps to work on Windows machines. This approach will be similar to the App Store, through which one can’t install tablet apps on an iPhone, but iPhone apps can be installed and scaled up to run on the iPad. Microsoft has talked about providing a common app platform before, but this is the first there’s been any news of an expected release time frame.